To think most of what people call “British” is actually borrowed from other cultures?

[BlendedByEmpire]

From food to fashion to language, it seems like a lot of what’s considered traditionally British has roots elsewhere. Yet people still cling to the idea of a “pure” British culture. AIBU to think the whole concept is more mixed than most are willing to admit?

You can window-dress it all you like OP, you’re not saying anything original. The replies are defensive because you’re not arguing in good faith and the badly-disguised attacks like yours on Britain and British identity are tedious now. If you had any sense, you’d stop - because we’re seeing the repercussions of your so called ‘reminders’ when hundreds of thousands of people march on the streets of London to assert their pride in their identity and their culture. You’re doing nothing but stoking division. But you know this.

I really don’t know how old you are but you come over ad about 14.

The reason you’ve pissed pps off isn’t because you’ve raised a clever, challenging point (sorry to break that to you) but because your infantile ‘insights’ are insulting to people’s intelligence.

Absolutely spot on

To be fair, doesn't bother me

It’s interesting how asking a cultural question gets reduced to party politics. My post wasn’t about Labour, Tory or anyone else, it was about how cultures form and evolve. If that feels like a “goady” topic, maybe it’s because we’re not used to having honest conversations about national identity without turning it into a team sport.

Here we go again. Go and be miserable somewhere else. If you don’t like the Brits, stay well away.

As a Scot, I find a lot of “British culture” is actually.. English culture.

No one is falling for it OP. It wasn’t even that good an effort, 6/10 possibly 7 at a push.

You should have gone with ‘nation of immigrants’ , ‘colonised the world for spice..’ or ‘do the jobs British people are too lazy to do‘.

Literally.

So boring now 🥱

it was about how cultures form and evolve

You’re doing it again OP with the bad faith. Your post wasn’t about how cultures form and evolve. It was specifically about British culture. We can all read what you wrote.

That’s not what I’m saying at all. Recognising that cultures are influenced by others doesn’t mean they’re not real or unique. It just means they’re dynamic - shaped by history, geography, migration and interaction. Spanish culture, British culture, Nigerian culture, all of them are distinctive because of how they’ve evolved through both internal development and external influence. That’s doesn’t diminish their value, it adds depth. Cultural pride and cultural honest can co-exist.

We don’t need your type of bad faith discussion about national identity. Far from being unready, British people have witnessed their culture been relentlessly assailed and demonised from all sides over recent years.

Just popping on to say that if anyone is interested in the point made about food, Professor Panikos Panayi has written lots about this.

But unless you have an example of a ‘pure’ culture to compare to, isn’t it a pointless and universal point?

Again - this isn’t news to anyone. What makes you think anyone is unaware of such basic facts? If this is a revelation to you, it certainly isn’t to anyone else.

It really hasn’t been shaped by ‘centuries’ of migration. Great Britain until the industrial revolution hadn’t changed much at all in hundreds of years.

I know people love this idea that we’re a melting pot of immigrants going back to the Norman conquest but it’s inaccurate.

Who are you to tell us what we need? You do not speak for all british people

You’re entitled to disagree with me but dismissing it as bad faith isn’t fair. Plenty of people do talk about culture, especially British culture, as if it’s static and untouched by outside influence. I’m simply pointing out that it’s always been evolving, like every other culture. If that’s not news to you, great. But judging by some of the replies in this thread, it clearly is news to others.

No country in the world is totally isolated from future of another, alright maybe some small island never seen anyone else type place

Yes i have travelled and evey place has influence from someome else and gives influence to others as well

So, yes?

It’s a hackneyed point . Have you just discovered it? Have you got a school essay to write?

It’s potentially a fascinating subject but only when the discussion is between well-informed, well-read people - and you’re coming over as very naive. No-one with anything interesting to say on the subject would write the daft things you’ve posted.

Yes, isn't it great to borrow and learn from other cultures..
I remember when I was young chatting to a Nigerian women in a nightclub in London. We talked about all kinds of things but I remember she told me that British and European people have no culture, unlike African countries. This was all while she was speaking my language, wearing Western fashion, in a club dancing to British music and studying the British legal system.
I just nodded.

It serves their purposes to argue that we were always a nation of immigrants, but it’s absolutely untrue. People resent being lied to about themselves, their culture and their history.

When did society become this thing where everything or everyone had to be labelled good or bad. I’m sure this never used to be the case. Pride and love for where you come from is due to the familial, architectural, social, historical, geographical, meteorological and many more different types of threads that build and change over time. It represents comfort. It represents the familiar. It’s an individual yet common experience. Rapid immigration disrupts that. People get uncomfortable. Again, doesn’t make them good or bad. The governmental change management around immigration has been appalling.

I'm a product of the British Empire - had it not existed, I would not be here.

But I can see that there is 'British culture'. Some of it is like most cultures and has elements from the cultures with which it has interacted over the millennia.

Other bits are pretty much unique.
Bellringing, for example.